Beginning of happily ever after.(HEA)

Rae & Howard

Rae and I were  married on the second floor of Lew Tendler's (the boxing champion) restaurant on Broad Street.  A popular Philadelphia bar and restaurant  that didn't usually host weddings.  The Chupa  was a tablecloth stretched over 4 standing upright coat  hangers, one underneath each corner of the tablecloth.  Until I went to the wedding of Ross Dubins and his beautiful bride Veronica, with Rabbi Abromowitz's outstanding Service, I always considered my wedding the finest, most unique possible.

Sam 'Cappy' Hoffman

Our biggest wedding gift, $200.00, came from Sam 'Cappy' Hoffman.   Cappy was known as an underworld boss, under Nucky Johnson the political leader of Atlantic City.  One time Cappy got arrested in Philadelphia and was put on trial by a DA who was enjoying the publicity because it helped his political career.  The judge told the jury, "there is not enough evidence on any of the charges, except, maybe one, so you only have to find on that one charge."   Cappy was so notorious the jury found him guilty on all charges.  When he was put on probation he used his brother's butcher shop on 60th street in W. Philadelphia as his place of employment.  Rae was a teenage school girl at the time but she was also cooking for the family and she shopped for meat at Hoffman's Butcher Shop.  Cappy was there for many months, sitting on a chair on the customer's side, where the only work he ever did was chat with the customers.  Rae got to know him, but only as the younger brother of the butcher shop's owner.
Cappy also knew me because I did a favor for a good friend of his.  And then he did one for me when a bookmaker tried to renege on one of my rare winning baseball parlay bets.  Cappy heard about it and told  Gimpy,  who had collected my winnings from my bookmaker, "Pay the kid his money!"  Once, when some friends and I were going to a Phillies' baseball game, Gimpy asked if he could go in the car with us.  We said ok and while we were in a line for tickets a cop came over, pulled gimpy out of the line, and said, "Gimpy!  Where the hell do you think you're going?"  The cops knew him,  He had a record as a pickpocket and was banned from attending public events.
Benny Street, until he moved to Miami Beach, lived in Philadelphia.  He  had interests in hotels on Miami Beach and was one of Cappy's friends. I knew Benny's son, Harlan.   Harlan went to UM and became a lawyer with offices on Miami Beach.  When we got married it was off season and Benny got us 2 weeks, at the price for 1 week, at the Sands Hotel, 16th and Collins Avenue, on the ocean in Miami Beach.
While driving down we stopped to eat at a  restaurant in Georgia and after sitting without getting served for about 15 minutes Rae went into the restroom. A waitress followed her in, came out and told the other waiters it was just a tan.  We got good service after that but the food wasn't worth the wait.
Miami Beach, what can I say?   Restaurants like Joe's, Walter Kaplan's Embers, first time we ever saw a glass covered cart, filled with mouth watering desserts, brought right to your table.  Then there was Sonny's  Pizza and great Chinese restaurants.  And the weather. And the ocean.  But mostly, it was the weather.  But it could rain, pouring like hell for 10 or 15 minutes, and then the sun came out with no clouds anywhere.  Until 20 minutes later.  Rae and I would dash to take the elevator to our room.   The first time it happened there were a few people waiting at the elevator and I said, so they could hear, "I'm tired of playing gin.  How bout if I teach you how to play pinochle?"  And Rae was Rae. She gave me a good pinch and I said, "ok, ok, stop that.  How bout bridge?"  I'm not telling you what she answered,  but when we got to the room I never taught her either one nor did I say anything like that again during the rest of our honeymoon..
On the 1,100 mile drive home the brakes of the car  broke down, just south of Washington, D.C.  Our entire family bankroll was in my pocket, $35.00.  It was enough to fix the car, fill up with gas, and when we got home, I still had almost $5.00.  And then, much later, at the end of the fifties, we made Miami Beach our home.

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